A laser scanning unit in an electro-photographic image forming apparatus can scan light corresponding to an image signal on a photoconductive medium to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photoconductive medium.
Generally, such a laser scanning unit includes a driving motor that generates a rotating force and a polygon mirror that is rotated by the driving motor. The polygon mirror has multiple reflecting surfaces along the side surfaces thereof such that the polygon mirror can perform deflection scanning of light incident from a light source. The deflected light is passed through an fθ lens, and is reflected in a direction of a transmission member by a reflection mirror. The light reflected by the reflection mirror is passed through the transmission member, and ultimately to the photoconductive medium to form the electrostatic latent image.
Because of the demand for a compact-sized image forming apparatuses, the laser scanning unit can include a suspending structure wherein a rotor is suspended from a lower portion of a stator. Also, because of such demand for compact size, various components of the image forming apparatus, including the laser scanning unit, are being integrated.